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He said seeing elderly patients, already going through trauma, waiting in an aircraft hangar "brings home the human face of what is going on in Bundaberg and other centres".

Brigadier Greg Bilton, commander of the defence force's flood rescue taskforce, said the first of 131 Bundaberg Hospital patients had arrived in Brisbane after the hospital was expected to have flooding issues.

He said they would then begin transporting elderly people whose nursing homes were devastated by flooding.While Rockhampton prepares for its impending flood at the weekend, Brisbane is battling its next problem - turbid water.

The water travelling down from the Lockyer Creek and Bremer River is four times muddier than in 2011 and has shut down the Mount Crosby treatment plant.